Dragon’s Dogma 2 review: Capcom’s fantasy role-playing game is a journey worth taking

The blemishes of popular video games are sometimes referred to as “jank.” The term encapsulates things in a game that may be slightly broken or inherently odd – aspects that should be detrimental to the experience but are not. Ideally, these broken parts are overshadowed by a game’s superior elements, be they intricate combat systems, rich stories, or unique worlds.

To name what makes Dragon’s Dogma 2 The special “Jank” is unfair to Capcom’s new role-playing game. But Dragon’s Dogma game director Hideaki Itsuno definitely does flirts With Jank in the latest incarnation of his medieval fantasy series, everyone is looking for vision. At the heart of this vision is Itsuno saysmeans “to be in a place where the destination is within sight and not too far away and you are still looking forward to getting there.”

The way in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the biggest attraction. Travel is almost entirely done on foot, with options for fast travel being extremely limited and options for slow travel (in an oxcart) somewhat less limited. What might seem like a nuisance in a modern open-world game where the convenience of travel has become the norm eventually becomes as enjoyable as wanderings in the real world can be. The game world is packed with landmarks, hidden caves to explore, and hundreds of monster encounters. Curiosity drove me to explore the game’s forests and deserts, finding new treasures and new threats – all at a light jogging pace.

The game’s sense of adventure goes beyond the geographical. It’s also a journey of grappling with the game’s esoteric and obscure mechanics, some of which seem designed to test players’ resolve. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is not particularly difficult like action RPGs like Dark Souls and Nioh, but it is challenging in the sense that I have to master it under its conditions. Recognizing its peculiarities makes it special; Reassessing how an open-world game can be played leads to discovering its fun.

Image: Capcom

Moving through this fantasy world and uncovering its vast map, discovering hidden secrets along the way, is a big part of what makes it so special Dragon’s Dogma 2 so exhilarating for dozens of hours. The understated fantasy world of Vermund is filled with threats large and small, from wolf packs and vicious goblins to giant griffins and ogres, to mount in hard-fought battles. As the title promises, there are also dragons to fight, although these battles are rare and special.

The fight determines the game; There are a variety of fighting styles to learn, from the straightforward warrior wielding a sword and shield to more complicated professions such as the magical archer, bow-wielding wizard and trickster. Contribute to uniqueness Dragon’s Dogma 2The combat system consists of pawns, computer-controlled characters that support you in battle. In a kind of passive multiplayer component of the game, characters are hired by other players. You may come across one on one of the many long hikes you take and rent it Dragon’s Dogma 2, or you can enter some kind of interdimensional portal called the Rift and choose one as if you were the hiring manager at your workplace. Your merry little band of peasant followers have their own fighting styles and personalities; Some are aggressive and violent, or driven to loot treasure, while others are friendly and helpful, constantly coming to your aid with remedies.

Pawns add an asynchronous multiplayer element to the game that goes beyond simply switching hired hands back and forth. Characters help you learn how other players play, what discoveries they have made in their worlds, and how others treat the characters they hire. As your adventure progresses, your main character will likely be hired by someone else, and they will return to you with rewards for their services. Upon their return, the Pawns will provide you with Yelp-like reviews of the players they hired. These are ultimately minor details in the overall experience of Dragon’s Dogma 2but they are another fascinating layer in the game’s unique construction.

Image: Capcom

You’ll even get a sense of other players’ tastes by seeing how they’ve customized their own characters. Many of them are minimally dressed and show a lot of skin. So be warned if you have sensitive sensations. But also expect a few giggles when you look at other players’ pawns; They like to recreate celebrities – I once hired “Taylor Swift” as a chess piece – and famous fictional characters. However, choosing to play onl ine is a decision. You can forego this option if you wish and only rent officially manufactured game figures from developer Capcom.

Occasionally farmers also show a little jerk. They follow you wherever you go, sometimes falling off a cliff and falling to their death in comical ways. You’ll get caught up in battles you may not know about, and you’ll have to back down to revive them. In an intriguing game design decision, game characters can also become infected with a virus that spreads among these non-playable characters. Farmers contracting a disease called Dragon Plague, a disease you hear about dozens of times from your chatty farmers, can cause massive devastation in the game.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a strange mix of systems. From the unique farming mechanics to the confusing save system, it’s not designed to be player-friendly. It rewards curiosity and sometimes choosing the most difficult path. It has significant flaws: it runs at a clunky frame rate at times; the game’s map and interface are clumsy; and many mechanics and quests are poorly explained. It has Jan. But it overcomes its shortcomings with confidence and vision, giving players the freedom to explore the world at their own pace and create unforgettable and personal stories.

Image: Capcom

At the beginning of my experience with Dragon’s Dogma 2I explored the castle town of Vernworth, far from my home base. The sun was setting and I found myself lost in the forest, looking for a group of monsters to eliminate as part of a quest. I was surprised by a spellcasting necromancer who commanded a small army of skeleton warriors. Over the course of a 10 minute battle, these undead enemies finally defeated us as my character and figures fell one by one. It was then that I realized I was too weak for such a fight and unprepared to face the deadlier nighttime monsters of Vermund’s wilds. I learned the importance of rest, either while camping or saving my progress at an inn in one of the game’s scattered towns.

Later I encountered powerful dragons and angry minotaurs who also struck me and my squad down. I was thrown out of the sky by a griffin while riding a cable car in a wooden gondola. I fought alongside a warrior named Sigmund as we battled a smaller dragon atop a crumbling tower. These battles would become more memorable than the main story of Dragon’s Dogma 2the weakest component of the game.

Although the game’s story starts strong, it doesn’t matter in the end. You take on the role of an Awakened One, a Chosen One whose heart has been captured by a dragon and who is destined to rule the Kingdom of Vermund. After being imprisoned and left to rot as a slave laborer, you learn that someone else has claimed to be the Awakened as part of a shadowy conspiracy, thereby denying you your rightful place on the throne. Over the course of a few missions given to you by sympathetic believers in your destiny as an Awakened, you’ll eventually be able to eliminate the impostor. But Dragon’s Dogma 2The narrative stutters and falters as it moves beyond its premise, and the story laid out by its authors meanders. By the end of the game, I had lost interest in revenge and largely forgotten why I should even care about the villains who had gotten in my way. It was the smaller, more emergent stories that emerged from side quests and exploration that won me over, not the ultimately chaotic and unsatisfying plot.

Image: Capcom

By the end of the game, I had discovered much of the massive world and increasingly realized that there wasn’t much variety in the monsters I fought. At this point I’ve fought hundreds of goblins, dozens of bandits and harpies, a handful of ogres, minotaurs and cyclops. As a result, the battles feel more and more boring. It’s a huge world with too little variety in the things I fight against.

It’s the exploration that kept me going, even if I almost accidentally “beat” the game before I was emotionally ready. I saw the end in sight and so retreated to take a detour. The spectacle that comes from battling giant brass statues or talking dragons is nowhere near as attractive as discovering a well-hidden enclave of elves – who don’t even speak my language! – or a giant sphinx armed with challenging puzzles.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the best video game adventure I’ve experienced since then Elden Ring, a far more accessible open-world game that has undoubtedly influenced the way gamers perceive this year’s big fantasy RPG. (It certainly did for me.) But like another FromSoftware game, the original Demon soulsI discovered that after I accepted Dragon’s Dogma 2As I recognized the ins and outs of the book and deciphered what it asked of me, I fell deeply in love. Dragon’s Dogma 2 evokes the old feeling of learning to overcome my expectations of a game and discovering new types of experiences in the process. This is the best kind of trip.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 was released on March 22nd on PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X. The game was tested on PlayStation 5 with a pre-download code provided by Capcom. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These have no influence on the editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find More information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.